If someone were to pen the story of Barnes & Noble today, booksellers would probably file it under "mystery."

There’s long been talk about whether Barnes & Noble will split itself into two companies, likely with its retail books division on one side and the Nook – its long-suffering e-reader – on the other. That path might have become a bit clearer Thursday, as Barnes & Noble announced it would buy back Microsoft's roughly 17 percent stake in Nook.

But John Tinker, an analyst with investment bank and brokerage firm Maxim, says it’s still unclear if and how the company might divide itself. Barnes & Noble is currently made up of retail stores, a series of college bookstores and a large equity interest in Nook, which is both a hardware company and a software company.

When a company wants to shed a division, it generally has three options: liquidate it, sell it, or spin it off. University of Pennsylvania professor Emilie Feldman says the Nook still has some value, though finding a buyer could be tough. Spinoffs have become popular lately, she says, citing examples like HP, eBay, and Symantec.

Investors often push for spinoffs when companies have divisions with very different growth trajectories, competitors or paths forward, Feldman says. If Barnes & Noble did spin off the Nook, it’d likely issue new stock in separate company to existing shareholders, letting them decide whether to hold the stock and stick with the Nook or sell.

If someone were to pen the story of Barnes & Noble today, booksellers would probably file it under mystery.

There’s long been talk about whether or not Barnes & Noble will split itself into two companies, likely with its retail books division on one side and the Nook – its long-suffering e-reader – on the other. That path might have become a bit clearer Thursday, as Barnes & Noble announced it would buy back Microsoft's roughly 17 percent stake in Nook.

But John Tinker, an analyst with investment bank and brokerage firm Maxim, says it’s still unclear if and how the company might divide itself. Barnes & Noble is currently made up of retail stores, a series of college bookstores and a large equity interest in Nook, which is both a hardware company and a software company.

When a company wants to shed a division, it generally has three options: liquidate it, sell it, or spin it off. University of Pennsylvania professor Emilie Feldman says the Nook still has some value, though finding a buyer could be tough. Spin-offs have become popular lately, she says, citing examples like HP, eBay, and Symantec.

Investors often push for spin-offs when companies have divisions with very different growth trajectories, competitors or paths forward, Feldman says. If Barnes & Noble did spin off the Nook, it’d likely issue new stock in separate company to existing shareholders, letting them decide whether to hold the stock and stick with the Nook or sell.

In terms of things to worry about, the U.S. economy already has its share of concerns. Well, add one more to that list: not enough babies.

The U.S. fertility rate is at an all-time low, and doesn’t show signs of rebounding any time soon. In fact, women have never had so few children in the history of the U.S. The tipping point is a term called, “replacement level fertility,” — demographer-speak for the number necessary to replace you, and your partner, i.e., two babies.

And for the longest time that rate was sitting comfortably at about 2.1, until recently.

"So, that's kind of the magic number and over the past several years we've actually dipped below that 2.1, we're now at around 1.9 births per woman," says Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau.

Mather says many young people might still be feeling the pinch of the Great Recession and have just stopped having children.

Another factor in holding down birth rates could be the simple fact that many more women are primary bread-winners, and are unwilling to pay the opportunity cost of dropping out to have children. “As more and more women are entering the workforce, we'd expect fertility rates to stay at pretty low levels and I don't see any signs of that slowing down in the future,” says Mather.

An aging work force, a drop-off in consumer spending, everything from onesies to college tuition — these just a few negative economic impacts of the baby bust.

But how much should we really worry?

“I don't think it's an economic disaster but it does create challenges, “says David Lam, an Economist at the University of Michigan’s Population Studies Center. The theory, says Lam, is that as economic conditions improve, people will start having more babies. But even if we don’t, many other wealthy economies are doing just fine.

“You know, Germany is doing quite well right now economically, relatively speaking, with a lower fertility rate than we have,” he says.

And if economic incentives to get in a family don't come about, immigration is a button policy makers might still push to help drive the recovery.

We learned in the Autumn Statement that, on their current fiscal policies, a Labour government would need £50bn less in spending cuts or tax rises than the Tories. Would that be good or bad for Britain?

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